United World Wrestling announces new format for Paris Olympic qualifiers in 2024, no gold medal games
The United World Wrestling (UWW) on Monday, November 13, announced the format for the upcoming continental and world qualifiers events for the Paris Olympics 2024. A few key changes have been made, with snubbing of gold medal games being one of the key highlights.
There will be four continental and one world qualifiers for wrestling to finalize all the Olympic quotas in the next six months. All five qualifiers will just have four seeds for each of the weight classes.
Barring Oceania and Africa's joint qualification tournament, each continent will organize its own qualifiers. A total of 144 quotas will be up for grabs in all four continental events.
The qualification cycle will start with the Pan-American qualifiers in Acapulco, Mexico, from February 28 to March 1 next year. The African & Oceania qualifiers are next on the list, scheduled between March 22 and 24.
The next qualifying event - European qualifiers - will take place from April 4 to 7 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Asian qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, is the last continental event that will start on April 19 and conclude by April 21.
There won't be repechage, bronze, and gold medal matches, with the semifinals serving as the highest stage in the qualification process. The finalists in each of the weight categories in all four continental qualifiers will secure spots in the Paris Olympics.
2 bronze medal winners to compete for third Olympics spot in World Qualification Wrestling
The World Qualifier event will be staged in Turkey in May 2024, just two months ahead of the Olympic games. There will be repechage bouts conducted but no gold medal games.
All the winners of the semi-finals will earn a berth in the quadrennial showpiece. Winners of two bronze-medal matches will contend for a third spot in the Olympics. There will be 54 quotas on offer in the World Qualification tournament.
Wrestling is classified into two categories - Greco-Roman and Freestyle - with a total of 18 events to take place in the Olympics in both categories. There are no Greco-Roman events for women wrestlers.
Here are the following wrestling events that will take place in the Paris Olympics:
Men's Greco-Roman events: 60kg, 67kg, 77kg, 87kg, 97kg, 130kg
Men's Freestyle events: 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg, 125kg
Women's Freestyle events: 50kg, 53kg, 57kg, 62kg, 68kg, 76kg